Sunday, October 31, 2010

304: New York, Day 1

I've never been to New York before, and the only part of this side of the United States I've been in is Virginia and Florida. Yesterday, I stepped foot in JFK and experienced my first taxi ride in NY. My friend Miriam moved out here after college and I decided to visit her this weekend, which ended up being the same weekend as Halloween. Perfect to see the Halloween Parade down 6th Avenue! But more about that later.

This morning was Miriam's brother's birthday brunch / her niece's baby shower / Halloween party where her brother and sister-in-law cooked up an amazing meal. There was pulled pork and warm apple sauce and pumpkin biscuits and apple slaw and mushroom-asparagus frittata and mashed sweet potatoes and mmm it was good. After the brunch we planned our trip into Manhattan.

Start: Take the Path from Grove St to the WTC stop. After walking in the wrong direction at first, we made it to what we thought was going to be Seaport Yarn. Which it still was (we saw the sign) but was closed on Sundays. So instead we headed towards SoHo.

Stop 1: Easy Spirit. Miriam was looking for some comfortable shoes to replace her old wedges and found the perfect pair.

The best part is that they are water repellant. Win! And now I have a pair of ankle(ish) boots.

Stop 1.5: Starbucks. But not for the coffee, for the restroom.

Stop 2: Purl SoHo. Which was open, thank goodness. One of the cutest yarn stores I've ever been to, and they have fabric, too.

I got some yarn for me, and some yarn to make Miriam and her neice matching(ish) hats. I also got an adorable embroidery kit. Onward!

Stop 3: Kate's Paperie. I got some great stuff here. They had a pack of random pretty papers that I can use to make more magnets (excited!) and I also got a set of alphabet stamps. Their Halloween stuff was on sale, so I bought some sparkly, black, gothic letters and a mask (to be decorated). Such a cute store.

Stop 4: Think Coffee. On the way to the Village we stopped by this coffee place in NoHo. We both had the Spanish Latte which was delicious at the bottom (the condensed milk piled up a bit, yummy).

From there we headed up to Washington Square Park.

Stop 5: Washington Square Park. We saw the arc. That's about it.

Stop 6: 6th street and the Halloween Parade. We walked around for a bit and eventually found a spot on 6th street to watch the Parade. We didn't get to see the meat of the parade until about 7:30 (started at 7 pm). There were some neat puppets and some semi-enthusiastic Thriller dancers. There were also some French people that were standing way too close behind us. I like my personal space...But otherwise the parade was enjoyable.

Around 8 we headed back to the Path and back to Jersey City. All in all a very fun day. Tomorrow is going to be an early start heading to Times Square and Central Park. More yarn stores and coffee shops and other cute places to visit. Yay!